======= Date Modified 20 Sep 2008 23:31:22 =======
I'm here... I've been working on this chapter for a couple of hours now, although I stopped for some 25 minutes to have a Skype conversation with my family, but I'm now back to work. I'll stay as late as I can possibly manage, although I'm not very good at it.

Rubyw and Pari, have a nice sleep and we'll be here tomorrow if you'd like to drop by to say hello.

Lara, come on lass, battle face!!! :-s

Hi girls,

Lara, it is fantastic how the work is flowing for you... keep at it, you'll definitely finish in time. And yes, sleeping is important; do not underestimate the healing power of sleep.

Rubyw, I'm also fighting the urge to leave it to the last minute, but today, I can not afford that. I really need to finish this chapter soon. I've had to juggle a bit more with the sections, but I think I finally got the right structure and it gives me a better anchor for the argument, so hopefully words will flow easier.

Pari, you are such a sweety, thanks for cheering us up... badly needed sometimes :$

So, the writing is slow as usual, but I think I can do this (I have to, actually). It's not rocket science for god sake! Its only writing down what I already know; the argument is partially there already, and everything else that I need I've read and digested multiple times... And if my pathetic little mind couldn't hold any of this information, it is right here, at arms length, in black and white, highlighted and annotated. What else do I need!!! :-s:-s

OK, rant over, sorry about that :$. I think I need some food now, so I'll stop for a little while and will get back to it later.

How are you girls doing?

======= Date Modified 19 Sep 2008 20:11:30 =======
Hi Rubyw,

It's good to hear from you. I know! the forum is so slow today. People must be making loads of progress. If only I could as well.

I went to uni this morning to see If I could catch my supervisor, but apparently all faculty were away at some event elsewhere, so no luck. I am a bit less horrified than I was yesterday, even though I haven't heard from him, just by thinking through the options I might have at this point. Anyway, I left him another email asking to meet me on Monday so I'm working towards finishing this chapter 3 by then, and hopefully this thesis will make some sense to someone other than myself. Obviously it is easier said than done, but I'll give it my best effort. So another writing marathon weekend ... yay!!!! and this time with an unavoidable deadline... yay!! and far more ambitious than all the other ones... yay!!! if I don't make fun of myself, I'll start crying, so... yay for back to back thesis writing shifts!!!

Anyhow, I hope you are all doing well. How is it going Lara, Sheena?

Back to work now (up)(up)

Hi girls,

Thanks Lara, Rubyw and Sheena for your words of support. This morning when I was shocked and scared I sort of made some progress, I even finished another section in chapter 3, so I'm getting closer now. Unfortunately that wore off after lunch and now I'm only somehow depressed. Anyway, I'll just bring everything I've got to show him what I've been up to and discuss my options, if any.

I hope everything goes well in the night shift. I'll post some update when I know more.

Hi girls,

I'm back to working on the thesis, but just got some not very good news about my extension. Based on the progress he's seen, my supervisor doesn't believe I can make it, even with the extension. Obviously I'm shocked, and the only thing I can do now is to wrap everything up the best I can to bring to him to show for my progress... and beg him to reconsider. So, I'll be working on that all day hoping that I can meet him tomorrow. :-(

I hope you girls are doing better than I am.

Hi girls,

Thanks Rubyw, I am feeling better, and actually had put the thesis out of my mind for the moment since I'm in the middle of a lecture. Only that my students are finishing an activity, so have to wait for them. It's still a good hour and a half to go, so will get home quite late and tired. Just wanted to post a quick one to see how you are doing. So, your first day back to work went well?

Well done Lara for finishing that, you'll be out of it in no time. Now, don't over do it. Take a good break, or even better leave the rest for tomorrow. You need your rest. If you can afford it, that is ;-)

I don't think I'll have the energy to switch on the computer when I get home so I'll sign off now. I will be, however, working from home all day tomorrow.

Talk to you later 8-)

Hey!

What's going on here? our thread went over to the 2nd page, that's not right!

Anyhow, Rubyw thank you very much for your kind words. I was feeling a bit down last night. Probably because I got into one of those conversations where people check you up if you are on target... you know yourself. But you are right, full time job and thesis at the same time is not easy, and there is only so much I can do. So, today I'll try to get work related stuff out of the way as soon as possible and perhaps put aside a couple of hours before my lecture this evening to do some thesis work. And then tomorrow I'll give it the whole day again. Thanks Rubyw, you are a star. How's work? :-)

Lara and Fiona, I hope you're having a well deserved rest after your all-nighter. How did it go?

Talk soon,

Thanks Pari, you are very sweet. I promise I'll take care of myself :-)

Rubyw, I'm glad to hear that you've got that pipe sorted, on the bright side, it happened when you were at home so could deal with it without major drama. There is never a good timing for things like that, I know. Good luck with going back to work, I hope you'll be able to work out something so you can stay focused on the thesis. I talked to my boss yesterday and told him that since I needed as much time as possible to keep writing, I will be only turning up for my lectures. He was happy with that and now I'm excused from any faculty meeting from here until I finish. I still have to teach a lot of hours though.

Lara, regardless of how much progress you've made on that chapter, remember to get some rest and dinner before the night shift tonight. And remember to put on your battle face :-s Best of luck!

TG, well done on submitting and getting everything sorted. Now you can take it easy and relax, you have plenty of time before the Viva.

I have found it really hard to gather any motivation to finish this chapter. I practically didn't make any progress and feel like I wasted the whole day. I know that when I finish this chapter two more will follow very closely because they are already written and I will only have to write two more after that, but it is taking so long that I do not know if I'll ever be able to actually do it. Anyway, no point on wallowing, so I'll try again tomorrow.

Talk soon,

Hi girls,

How are things? So many posts since I was here last, I had to read through two pages!

Lara, great job ticking chapters off the list; you are there, I tell ya! Keep going.

TG, when a grow up (six weeks from now ;-)) I want to be just like you, with a finished, printed and bounded thesis in my hands. I'm looking up to you now (up).

Rubyw, I hope that chapter is taking shape now. Don't worry too much about the time it's taking you to get it sorted. It is time well spent since afterwards you'll find the discussion flows much easier in the following chapters.

Yesterday I was in the office all day and finished lecturing after 8pm; obviously got home wrecked and didn't want to do anything but have a shower, some dinner and to collapse in front of the telly. Now I have to catch up. I think I'll also have to skip footie tonight otherwise I won't get enough time to get it going. So, I'll keep my aims short term and start with section 3.4. I'll come back to report how I'm getting on with it.

(up) Come on girls one last push we are almost there (up)

Rubyw, I'm going to follow your lead. I'm too tired and don't seem to be getting anywhere. I'm having an early start tomorrow, and I do not want to go to bed to late tonight. So, I'm clocking out now.

Congratulations Krashty on finishing the thesis, after you submit you should take the rest of the week off and relax.

Pari and Lara, good luck for the rest of the evening. You are doing great, do not over do it. You should go to bed early (-ish, at least) tonight as well.

I'll talk to you girls tomorrow 8-)

Hi everyone,

I've been working on that chapter and I ended up restructuring it; not radically, but just making sure that the order and headings make sense in the overall discussion. So now I'm looking at a chapter three which has six (so far) sections: 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 are finished (final draft like); 3.4 and 3.5 are partially drafted and 3.6 is empty. Total word count so far is 8,729.

Immediate aim is to finish section 3.4, which will do as soon as I get some food (I'm starving) :p

Lara, I hope that reading went well and that you soon can go back to writing.

Rubyw, how's chapter 1 coming along? I know the pressure of having to get stuff out of the way before term starts; good luck with that. When we finish this we should probably talk about sharing teaching strategies ;-)

Pari, how did it go last night, are you working today?

The writing is slow, but at least the discussion is flowing, so can't complain too much. I'm also tired and very hungry now though, so will take a break to have some food and if I do not unwind too much I might come back to write some more. Otherwise I'll join the ones that have called it a night and go to bed.

Have a good night sleep :-)

after submitting the thesis I want to:

Binge read all the books I've been queuing up for months.
Go to Wimbledon.
Go to the Proms.
Go on a sky trip.
Learn German.
Go back to training Trampoline and Volleyball.
Go to the gym in a regular basis.
Visit my parents without having the thesis hanging over my head.
See all the films I've missed.
Catch up with friends and family.
Do some DIY.
Go on a much needed retail therapy.

======= Date Modified 13 Sep 2008 22:02:04 =======
======= Date Modified 13 Sep 2008 20:56:45 =======
So many choices! I'm again working to the music of the Proms; but tonight there is Proms both on BBC 2 and BBC 4... I love the Proms! Next year when I have my life back there are so many things I want to do, and the Proms are right at the top of the list.

I didn't get much done during the day, but I'm ready for the night shift now. It looks like I'm becoming a bit of a night owl myself. I suppose it is easier to concentrate in the evenings, if one is not too tired, that is ;-) Chapter 3 is actually not doing too bad. I've been struggling with this section that I've been considering the first half of the chapter, so I'm working on several subsections within; but since the subsections are progressively narrowing the focus on the core argument of the thesis, I need to maintain a high level of detail in the discussion. So, what's happening is that each subsection is getting longer and richer that the previous one, until I got to the point that I realised that I actually do not need the original sections; each subsection actually stands out on its own with its own argument. To cut a long story short, that first and second half of the chapter I was working out earlier doesn't make any sense any more and I've gone well over 70% of the overall chapter already; apparently I'm closer to finish it than I thought. Yay!

Rubyw, you must have had a great time with your mum, and I'm sure she did too. It is good to have you back keeping us company. My user name, Lara, Doesn't actually mean anything, it is just one of those made up user names assigned by the IT department in college; they just collapsed my name and surname into a 8-letter word. I'm sorry it doesn't have such a nice story behind it as TG's does :$ Pari, how is your proposal coming along? Sounds like something we do in my uni that we call transfer paper; you write this proposal and have a mini viva to transfer from MLitt to PhD register after your first year. Is that it?

So... Back to work :-s

:-s indeed! never was the battle face more appropriate than in this occasion. On the bright side Lara, you've already done the right thing, you backed up all of your work, you have a back up computer, and you even have somebody who can take care of it. That is fantastic strategic thinking, long before this little tragedy happened, you have already dealt with it. Good girl! Now, keep on working on the laptop, for the time being, and let your Dad's friend fix the desktop one at his earliest convenience and when it's up again, you just migrate back to format and print the thesis... See? You are grand 8-)

I also got up a bit late and took me a while to get started, but here I am now at chapter 3 as usual. I'll be back soon to report on progress. Best of luck!